Speaker(s):

Leasa Weghorst, MEd, PLPC, RN

Presentation: Since mental health is a vastly underfunded and often unsupported field of medicine, it is important for practitioners to be creative and think “outside the box,” when addressing clients’ mental health needs. This presentation focuses on alternative and supplemental strategies for treatment that are supported by evidenced-based research. Nutrition, physical activity, and other homeopathic remedies can have a significant impact on an individual’s well-being and can often be implemented affordably. Holistic strategies will be identified, examined, and considerations of implementation will be addressed.

Objectives:

• Examine current challenges to the affordability of pharmacological interventions and briefly review some of the negative side effects
• Increase awareness of alternative and supplemental strategies available for use, with mental health clients
• Define strategies for implementing evidence-based holistic strategies into daily therapy sessions

Slides and Handouts: 

Weghorst_Outside the Box

Speaker(s):

Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC

Presentation: Addictions and mental illness overlap at the rate of 50 percent. Compared to clients with a single diagnosis, those with co-occurring disorders experience more relapses, arrests, hospitalizations, evictions, suicide attempts, and completed suicides. In this skill-building workshop, participants will be introduced to strategies to effectively work with clients with co-occurring disorders.

A partial list of topics includes: Challenges in Diagnosing a Dual Disorder; The 5 Hidden Psychiatric Disorders Common among Clients with Chemical Dependence; The New Person-centered Approach to Co-occurring Disorders Treatment; Evidence-based Approaches to Co-occurring Disorders Treatment; How to Address the 4 Psychiatric Disorders that Co-occur the Most Frequently with Chemical Dependence; and 10 Strategies for Helping Clients with Co-occurring Disorders Avoid Slipping through the Cracks.

Objectives:

• List 7 challenges in assessing mental illness among chemically dependent clients and how to overcome them
• Discuss 5 hidden psychiatric disorders common among clients with chemical dependence
• Identify strategies for overcoming resistance when working with clients who have a co-occurring disorder
• Reveal the 10 tenets of the new person-centered approach to co-occurring disorders treatment
• Review 3 evidence-based approaches to co-occurring disorders treatment
• Discuss treatment of 4 psychiatric disorders that co-occur with chemical dependent clients
• Define 10 strategies to help clients with co-occurring disorders avoid slipping through the cracks

Speaker(s):

David Lynde, MSW, LICSW

Christine Powers, MSW, LICSW

Presentation: This session will provide an overview of some of the effective ways to provide employment services to people who have co-existing ID/DD and mental health challenges. Information regarding effective strategies and techniques for gathering and developing a working understanding of a person’s mental health challenges as they relate to e employment will be reviewed including ideas and considerations for working with staff who are providing mental health treatments to the person.

Objectives:

• Describe some of the key areas to gather mental health information when working with people who have co-existing ID/DD and mental health challenges on employment
• Identify different critical sources of mental health information regarding a person’s mental health symptoms and challenges when providing employment services
• Identify strategic methods to understand and engage mental health treatment providers in supporting the person’s employment goals

Slides and Handouts:

Lynde_Sub_Use_employment.slides

Speaker(s):

Peggy Tyson, MEd, LPC, NBCCH

Presentation: Traumatic grief is becoming more and more prevalent in our communities and is often a silent part of  the presenting problem for many clients. Traumatic grief and, more specifically, homicide grief will be examined and defined. How it manifests itself in an individual and the community, as a whole, will be discussed. DSM IV and V definitions and existing theories such as Cognitive Processing Theory and EMDR will be presented, as well as the Companioning Philosophy for Caregivers, by Dr. Alan Wolfelt. An overview of how children in different stages of development process grief and loss will also be given.

Ways to identify and address grieving clients and coping strategies to help them manage their feelings of loss are covered. Addiction as an unhealthy coping strategy will be discussed, as it is also the easiest and most readily available strategy. We will follow the path of “Sonia”, a fictional, but typical, mother of three, 38 years old and mourning the loss of her eldest child, 17 yr old “Damon”, to gun violence in St. Louis. As she makes her way through her grief, we will discuss the various comments and situations she routinely encounters as she continues her life without her child.

Objectives:

• Define traumatic grief and identify dimensions of grief in various populations
• Identify grieving clients and incorporate healthy coping strategies to mourn in a trauma-informed treatment plan
• Describe how traumatic grief effects our communities overall

Slides and Handouts: 

Tyson_Traumatic Grief

Speaker(s):

Lia Jennings, PhD, MSW, LCSW

Michael Perkins, MSW, LCSW

Presentation: The NASW Code of Ethics (2017) 4.05 “Impairment” maintains that social workers shouldn’t allow their personal issues to affect their professional behavior. This presentation will cover indications of impairment and prevention of impairment through self-care methods. The presentation will offer specific self-care exercises and techniques to help professionals prevent themselves from getting to a point where they are impaired.

Objectives:

• Define self-care and wellness
• Measure stress levels
• Identify at least 3 self-care techniques to ward off effects of stress

Slides and Handouts:

Jennings_Wellness presentation tan tar a

Speaker(s):

Lindsay Kyonka, MSW

Presentation: Research consistently indicates that children who have experienced childhood trauma, including abuse or neglect, are at a much greater risk for negative social, emotional and educational outcomes, making child abuse and neglect prevention a high priority in public health. Providing interventions to families with multiple risk factors before child abuse or neglect occurs is key, but how can providers most effectively intervene with this population, especially given the impact of previous trauma on caregivers?

The Saint Louis Crisis Nursery has been a leader in child abuse and neglect prevention in the greater St. Louis region for over 31 years. Using the core principles of Trauma Informed Care within the framework of the Strengthening Families Approach, the Crisis Nursery provides immediate, trauma sensitive interventions to effectively reduce family risk factors for child abuse and neglect, and increase family protective factors. These strategies will be explored in greater depth to provide participants with a better understanding of the impact of past trauma on families with multiple risk factors for abuse and neglect, as well as outcome-driven, trauma-informed strategies for engaging these families to reduce risk and promote resiliency.

Objectives:

• Define risk factors for child abuse and neglect
• Describe the impact of past trauma on caregiver functioning
• Describe the relationship between past trauma and risk factors for child abuse and neglect
• Define the core concepts of trauma informed care
• Utilize core concepts of trauma informed care to inform interventions with families who have multiple risk factors for child abuse and neglect
• Utilize trauma informed interventions to increase family protective factors
• Identify trauma informed strategies for engaging families in participant’s own practice

Slides and Handouts:

Kyonka_STI Presentation 2018

Speaker(s):

Tanya Fongemie

Bethann Berry, MA, QMHP

Presentation: Ms. Fongemie will share her personal story, describing the struggles she went through and how she is able to use those experiences to help others. This presentation will provide an overview of the roles that a Family Support Provider and a Peer Support Specialist may have in an organization and how they can help others.

Objectives:

• Share personal story and life’s obstacles (told by Ms. Fongemie)
• Describe the Family Support Provider role
• Describe the Peer Support Specialist role
• Discuss how the FSP and PSS can help others

Slides and Handouts:

Berry_Spring Con. PP2